Over 72.77 million active telecommunication subscribers have been barred from making calls on their SIMs, following a directive from the Federal Government to telecommunication companies. On Monday, the Federal Government ordered telecommunications companies to enforce compliance with its National Identification Number-Subscriber Identity Module policy by restricting outgoing calls on all unlinked lines as the deadline for the verification expired on March 31. This directive was contained in a joint statement signed by Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde, and Head, Corporate Communications at the Nigeria Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke. According to the statement, 125…

Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Nuru Khalid, has been sacked for delivering a sermon that criticised the government over killings in Nigeria. The Imam was earlier suspended by the Steering Committee of the mosque on Saturday. But the chairman of the mosque committee, Saidu Dansadau, announced on Monday that Khalid’s suspension had been upgraded to sack. He said that Khalid was sacked for not being remorseful despite his suspension as the Imam of the mosque. This is despite the public outcry that Khalid should be reinstated. Khalid had, in his sermon, lambasted the government for its inability to…

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he spoke Monday with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres about events in Bucha in what appear to be deliberate killings in the town on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv. “No place for Russia on the UN Human Rights Council,” Kuleba said on Twitter. “Ukraine will use all available UN mechanisms to collect evidence and hold Russian war criminals to account.” Videos and photos of streets in Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians, some with their hands tied behind their back, have led to global revulsion, calls for tougher sanctions,…

In both Hungary and Serbia, openly pro-Russian parties comfortably won legislative elections, providing Putin with a welcome reminder that despite the international community's firm and largely united response to the invasion, he does have some friends to his west. The most significant victory came in the form of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his nationalist Fidesz party winning a landslide. Hungary is a member of both the European Union and NATO, meaning Putin can claim to have a friend with seats at the top table of two of his most-hated institutions. On Sunday night, during his victory speech, Orban…